Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792-1822)
the great English
lyric poet |
An appearance of enchantment
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in Sussex in August
1792, the son of Mr Timothy Shelley, a lawyer and Member of Parliament
who in 1815 became Sir Timothy Shelley, Baronet, so that the
poet, had he survived, would have inherited the
title and the estate. Despite coming from such a traditional
Establishment background, the young Shelley saw himself
as a revolutionary reformer. He was an idealist but was wholly
unrealistic and impractical in his aims, and was called "mad
Shelley" by his schoolmates.
Shelley went to Oxford University in October 1810, when he
was engaged to Harriet Grove, a relative of his uncle Thomas
Grove, owner of Cwm Elan, one of
the large mansions later to be lost with the flooding of the
Elan Valley. Their engagement was short lived, however, largely
because of Shelleys writings against religious belief,
which also resulted in his expulsion from Oxford after only six
months.
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Cwm Elan estate
c1880's (right)
By kind permission
of Radnorshire Museum
Llandrindod Wells
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The future poet, who was yet to produce any notable literary
work, then went to London, where he met another Harriet, Harriet
Westbrook, the da ughter of an inn-keeper.
In July 1811, when Shelley was almost 19, he was invited by his
uncle to stay at Cwm Elan. He chose to walk to mid-Wales all
the way from the family estate in Sussex.
Whilst in Wales he was greatly impressed by the wild and romantic
surroundings, as shown in his surviving letters of the time:
"Rocks piled on each other to tremendous heights, rivers
formed into cataracts by their projections, and valleys clothed
with woods, present an appearance of enchantment."
"This country is highly romantic; here are rocks of uncommon
height and picturesque waterfalls. I am more astonished at the
grandeur of the scenery than I expected."
"...I am not wholly uninfluenced by its magic on my lonely
walks."
There are 4 pages on Shelley in the
Elan Valley. Use the box links below to view the other pages.
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